What is the ratio for an actual SNES screen on TV?

Thanks to all ppl working on the emulator. It gives me chance to recall my childhood memories. And I like to imitate as close to the actual TV screen as possible. I have been using Snes9x with a screen ratio of 8:7, but then I saw from some pics (e.g. the boxart) that the actual TV screen looks wider. I recently tried an adaption of Snes9x, the XE adaption, and found that I can choose a ratio of x1.125 which gives a similar screen as the boxart pic
So what is the actual ratio? I can't remember that clearly the screen ratio I have played with years ago

The internal aspect ratio of the SNES is 8:7. What the console actually outputs is 4:3. What you most likely see on those box shots is analog stretching, which was in itself tied to the analog TV sets of old.

I see. Never think that what the actual TV shows is a distorted screen. Now I can well enjoy the emulator with correct ratio of 8:7. Thx!
To better illustrate my question, I should have posted some pics but the message "Post denied." always appears when I tried to insert an image url

PAL games were stretched in a similar manner, but most had black bars at the top and bottom, meaning the actual ratio was wider than 4:3. Some games added extra pixels at the top and bottom though to compensate, like Super Mario All Stars.

How do you run games in 8:7? Only options I seem to get out of bsnes (I use v073) is TV aspect (4:3) or stretch (a horrid looking 16:9). I much rather run in 8:7 for widescreen display.

I'm using Snes9x and there are two options for aspect ratio i.e. 8:7 and 4:3

Originally Posted by Agozer

You can't. The SNES outputs 4:3, and that is what you should be using.

I found that many game designers were actually creating 8:7 screens for SNES games. A good example is A Link to the Past. Link's sprite on the GBA ver is exactly the same as the one on SNES with 8:7 AR. So I will just stick to 8:7 AR for emulation

You can't. The SNES outputs 4:3, and that is what you should be using.

You are right. I've changed my mind and now I always stick to 4:3, though sometimes game designers may intend to make graphics in 8:7 (like the case of morph ball for Metroid on SNES). Blargg's NTSC filter seems best for me, and I am also trying the shaders on Snes9x 1.53